Bud's Offshore Energy (BOE)

1. Yesterday’s report that the Horizon crew tried to activate BOPE before evacuating is very significant.  We have now learned that the crew, the fail-safe closure mechanisms triggered by the power-loss and riser disconnect, and the ROV backup could not close the rams.  Therefore, the absence of an acoustic backup system does not appear to be significant in this incident.  An acoustic backup or any other type of backup would just be signaling the BOP to close, the same way the crew and automatic systems did, and the result would have presumably been the same.
2. A smart guy in Houston (doesn’t want his name used) raised an interesting thought last night.  If they had time between the first flow and the start of the fire, would they have been better off initiating a drive-off routine that disconnected the riser from the well and moved the rig away from the location? (Keep in mind that this was a dynamically positioned rig.)   The fire would have been prevented or minimized, lives might have been saved, and the rig would not have sunk.  Why not establish an escape option that takes advantage of a DP rig’s mobility?
3. The same contact also suggested that continuous pumping of fire-water into internal compartments may have caused the rig to sink.
4. Escape procedures and lifeboat issues have not received much attention to date, but are sure to be an important aspect of the investigation.
5. MMS postponed the National SAFE Awards scheduled for Monday.  This was the correct decision under the circumstances.

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NASA Image

Unified Command News Conference highlights:

1. Attempts to actuate the BOPE have not been successful.  New options are being developed and applied.  4 ROVs are working around the BOP stack.  They are connecting to the stack, but have not been able to successfully actuate rams.
2. The shear ram on the BOP stack should have actuated when the rig lost power and when the riser was separated from the stack by ROV.
3. The responders are still estimating a 1000 bopd spill rate.  This is thought to be the deepest water ever (5000′) for a significant seafloor spill.
4. The leading edge of spill is 20 miles south of Venice, LA.  No landfall is suggested in the next 3 days.  3740 barrels of oil water mixture have been recovered.  Comment: No information has been provided on the estimated percentage of the mixture that is oil.
5. The responders are prepared to remove oil from the water by burning  the oil in situ within a fire boom.  Comment: Good call.  Burning can quickly and completely remove oil from the water if the slick is sufficiently thick.  Kudos to my former colleague Ed Tennyson who was the scientific and inspirational leader in developing this response capability.
6. The subsurface containment system (seafloor dome) will be ready in 2-4 weeks.  Construction is underway.  The recovered fluids will be transported to a production system on the Enterprise drill ship.
7. The relief well permits will be approved today.  The Deepwater Driller III is on location 0.5 miles from the flowing well.  The plan is to intercept the 7-inch casing near total depth.  Comment: This implies that BP believes the well is flowing inside the production casing and not in the annulus.
8. The current cost for the response is more than $6 million per day.  Comment: This could easily become the most expensive spill response operation in history.

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While the tragic loss of life cannot be reversed, the responders appear to be making every effort to secure the well and minimize environmental damage.  Plans are moving ahead on several fronts as highlighted below:

1. ROVs are being deployed to actuate BOP rams and halt the flow.  For the spill is to be stopped quickly, this plan must be successful.  This picture indicates that there is drill pipe in the well and some flow inside the drill pipe.  The drill pipe will have to be cut with a shear ram to fully seal the well.  One or more other rams may be closed around the drill pipe.   I am sure the top subsea engineers in the world are working on this plan.  Unless there is damage to the BOP stack or other complications that haven’t been reported, I like their chances.
2. The Deepwater Driller 3 will be on location on Monday to prepare to drill a relief well.
3. Of great interest to scientists and engineers is the plan to install a collection dome on the seafloor and transport the oil and gas to the surface where it could be burned.  This would be an extraordinary feat given the water depth and flow rates.  One of the first such collection systems was Brown and Root’s famous “Sombrero” that was deployed during the Ixtoc blowout in 1981.  The Sombrero was considered a failure, but important lessons were learned.  A good MMS study of deepwater containment systems is linked.

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